Guide · Shipping & Logistics
Design shipping that you can fulfill: zones, packaging, dimensional weight, rate cards, returns, COD logistics and the messages customers see before they pay.
360ecom Editorial · Updated Jul 6, 2026 · 8 min read
Shipping is how the catalog becomes a box on a doorstep — or a failed attempt and a return. Shoppers treat speed, cost and hassle as part of the product. Finance treats the same movement as variable cost. This guide connects those views: zones, packaging, dimensional weight, rate cards, returns, COD logistics and what you say before checkout.
The physical flow is in how e-commerce shipping works. Margin context is in e-commerce profit margin explained. COD as a payment and logistics hybrid is in COD vs prepaid orders. If you are still designing the store, start with how to start an online store. Conversion copy for promises sits in the conversion optimization guide.
This is not courier contracting advice for a specific country, and it is not a legal returns manual. Carrier licences, restricted goods and consumer cancellation rights: check locally.
A useful mental model:
Every stage has a cost and a message. Most “shipping SEO” and “shipping CRO” problems are stage 1 contradicting stages 3–6.
Do not paste a world map on the footer if you cannot export, clear customs, or afford the rate.
Define:
Service levels (standard vs express) are zone-specific. An “express” SKU that still sits two days in your warehouse is standard with better copy.
Marketplace fulfillment (FBA and equivalents) is another zone system plus storage fees. Use the marketplace fee calculator for the take-rate; add fulfillment fees from the current seller documentation, not from memory.
Packaging is not only branding.
Test: pack a real order, weigh and measure, ship to yourself or a colleague, open it. Lab “void fill” photos are not a test.
For liquids, batteries, aerosols and food: carrier and legal restrictions apply. Check locally and with the courier; do not guess from a blog.
Couriers often bill chargeable weight = max(dead weight, volumetric weight).
Volumetric kg is typically:
(length × width × height) ÷ divisor
The divisor is in the contract (common examples in some contracts are 5000 cm³/kg or similar — do not treat any number in this guide as your rate). A 40 × 30 × 20 cm carton of pillows can cost like a much heavier phone.
Implications:
A rate card is the internal truth. The site is a simplified view of that truth.
| Model | When it fits | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time courier rates | Wide catalog, honest variability | Checkout surprise; API failures |
| Weight/zone table | Predictable SKUs | Dim weight under-estimated |
| Flat rate | Tight catalog, similar parcels | Heavy SKUs subsidized by light ones — or the reverse |
| Threshold (“free over X”) | You want AOV | Threshold set below true cost |
| Fully absorbed (“free”) | Margin and conversion justify it | Death by remote zones and COD |
Build a landed shipping cost:
chargeable weight × rate + packaging + pick/pack labour + COD surcharge if any
The shipping cost calculator uses a simple form of that. Then ask whether the customer-facing price is absorb, pass-through, or mixed.
Re-run break-even if shipping subsidy is material — contribution per order is what pays ads and rent.
On a marketplace, the “shipping” line may be baked into the buy box. On your site, you choose the promise. Do not copy a marketplace free-shipping badge onto your storefront without their fee structure.
Two different reverse flows:
RTO is especially expensive with COD: you paid outbound, you did not keep the goods’ cash, you may pay inbound, and the unit may no longer be first-quality.
Policy design (commercial + check locally for mandatory rights):
Operations design:
Cash on delivery is last-mile cash collection plus a purchase-decision delay.
If you offer it:
Prepaid vs COD economics: COD vs prepaid orders. Conversion implications: conversion optimization guide.
Do not enable COD to “boost conversion” on a catalog you cannot afford to reverse.
A large share of support volume is predictable:
| Moment | Message |
|---|---|
| PDP / cart | Zone, ETA range, cut-off, COD limits |
| Order confirmation | What was promised, what happens next |
| Handover | Tracking id, courier name |
| Exception | Delay or failed attempt before the shopper tweets |
| Delivered | How to start a return if needed |
Cut-off times only work if pick/pack actually respects them. During sales, update the promise; do not hope.
Tracking links that 404 are worse than a slower SMS that works.
One warehouse vs many. Split shipment (two boxes, two rates) can erase a “free shipping over X” offer. If you split, say so at checkout or hold the order until complete — both are operational choices with conversion effects. Multi-node inventory needs a source of truth; overselling is a shipping incident.
Service level vs courier SLA. “Dispatched in 24 hours” is your warehouse promise. “Delivered in 2–4 days” is a courier distribution. Publish the combination you can keep, not the courier’s marketing page. Peak periods (festival sales, weather, strikes) need a written slower ETA before you take the order.
Insurance and declared value. Know whether the courier’s liability covers your AOV. High-value SKUs may need extra cover or a prepaid-only rule. This is a cost line, not a PDP slogan.
Duties and tax on export. DDP vs DDU changes the shopper’s total and your support load. If you do not want to operate as the importer of record abroad, do not imply “no extra fees.” Customs classification: check locally and with a broker. This guide will not assign HS codes.
Split of marketplace vs site inventory. A unit sold twice — site and marketplace — is a cancellation. Reservation logic is part of shipping even when the courier never sees the failed order.
Packaging cost in the rate. Tape, void fill and branded boxes are real. Include them in the shipping cost calculator handling field so “free shipping” is not only the courier line.
Attempts and OTP. In markets with OTP or multiple attempts, failed first attempts become delay tickets. Address quality at checkout (see the conversion guide) is cheaper than extra miles.
Write a one-page packing standard for the SKUs that move:
Pickers guess when the standard lives in someone’s head. Guessing is damage and dimensional-weight surprises.
For some categories (made-to-order furniture, cold chain, legal-age goods), the delivery appointment is part of the offer. Publish booking windows, ID requirements and what happens on a failed attempt. If you cannot operate that, do not sell into that zone. Restricted goods and age checks: check locally.
Marketplace fulfillment can look simpler because the marketplace owns last mile. You still own listing accuracy, inbound to their warehouse, and storage fees. Those fees belong next to referral fees in the marketplace fee calculator story, even if you enter them as “other costs”.
Shipping is not a plugin you switch on. It is a designed constraint: where you go, what the box costs, what you charge, what you reverse, and what you say. Get those aligned and both margin and conversion have something true to stand on.
If you change couriers, reprint the rate card and the site in the same release. A leftover “2-day” line from a previous contract is how you buy five-star tickets with three-day operations. Re-read how e-commerce shipping works whenever the physical network changes; this guide is the commercial map, not the carrier’s API manual.
Shipping is rates, dimensional weight, SLAs and who pays. Rate shopping and packaging decide landed cost more often than the carrier brand on the box.
COD can lift conversion and raise RTO, rejection and cash-cycle cost. Prepaid is cleaner operations. When COD is rational depends on your market and SKUs.
Gross, contribution and net margin answer different questions. Channel fees, shipping and returns sit between list price and cash. Worked numbers included.
Offer it if you can recover the cost in price, AOV thresholds or mix — and if operations can keep the promise. It often raises conversion. It is not a law of e-commerce. Model it with shipping cost and break-even tools.
A courier charge based on carton volume, using a divisor in their contract (for example length × width × height ÷ a factor). You pay the higher of actual kg and volumetric kg. The factor is not universal; read the rate card.
In markets where customers expect it, refusing COD can cost conversion. Offering it raises refusals, cash collection work and sometimes courier surcharges. Use it by PIN code and product type, not as a default on every SKU.
Policy is a commercial choice constrained by local consumer law. Check locally. Operationally, decide restocking, refund timing and the reverse-logistics cost before you print a generous window on the PDP.
Build a landed shipping cost from weight, rate, packaging and handling.
Estimate take-home after referral fees, closing fees and payment charges on a marketplace sale.
Find how many units you need to sell to cover fixed costs at a given price and variable cost.
Start an online store from offer and unit economics through platform, catalog, payments, shipping and a launch checklist — without treating legal registration as a how-to.
Improve store conversion with research, hypotheses and honest changes to product pages, cart, checkout, trust and shipping promises — without dark patterns.